


Slip and Fall

by embroiderama



Category: White Collar
Genre: F/M, Minor Injuries, Romance, Snow and Ice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-12 01:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embroiderama/pseuds/embroiderama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal has a minor accident while out on a date with Sara, and it leads to Sara revealing some major news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slip and Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slytheringurrl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytheringurrl/gifts).



> This was written for [](http://slytheringurrl.livejournal.com/profile)[**slytheringurrl**](http://slytheringurrl.livejournal.com/) for [](http://fandom-stocking.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://fandom-stocking.dreamwidth.org/)**fandom_stocking**. It's set in a vague AU in which the finale of season 4 ended without the drama of the shooting and all that came after it, and in which Sara decided to stay in New York.

"You know it's impossible, don't you? The way you walk in those heels, especially when the streets are like this." Neal looked down at the sidewalk, which was covered in patches of slick ice and then back up at Sara, who managed to be radiant in the glow of the streetlights despite the winter dinginess of the city.

Sara laughed. "I've been practicing for a long, long time. Anyway, I have you to hold me up if I fall."

Neal did have Sara's wool-covered arm in his, but she was standing tall on her own. "As if you would ever let me see such a moment of weakness."

"Oh, you never know." Sara's words were light, but Neal felt like there was something else behind them, some deeper meaning.

Neal couldn't believe his luck, sometimes, that Sara had given him another chance at a relationship with her and that she had decided to stay in New York when an opportunity had arisen for her in London. She had explained it away, said that it wasn't the right time in her career for her to make a move, and Neal didn't know if it was logic or narcissism that made him believe that she had stayed for him instead. In another year, Neal would be free to follow her to London or anywhere else she found an opportunity, and just maybe she would decide that the right time came then.

It was at that moment, when he was lost in his thoughts, that gravity suddenly betrayed Neal. He stepped on an unseen patch of ice, and just as most of his weight was on his right foot his shoe lost traction and his foot slipped out from underneath him. He struggled to regain his balance, but he was too far gone. He heard Sara shriek, and then suddenly he was on the ground with Sara on top of him.

"Oh my God, Neal! Are you okay?"

Neal saw Sara looking down at him, but he couldn't say anything because his lungs were locked up, no way to get air in or out. He just nodded and tried to relax, then finally his body let go and he took in a ragged breath. "Sorry. I'm fine. Are _you_ okay?"

"I had you to cushion my fall." Sara got her feet under her and stood up gracefully, brushing at her coat. A pair of strangers stopped to ask if they needed help, and Neal was glad to see Sara thank them and send them on their way as he sat up, feeling embarrassed. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"I just got the wind knocked out of me." Neal smiled up at her then went to push himself up to his feet and felt a flash of pain go through his wrist. Everything went hazy and gray around him for a moment, and when his vision cleared Sara was crouching down next to him.

"Ambulance or taxi?" Her face was stern, and Neal shook his head but he knew there wasn't going to be any escape.

"Cab. I think it's my wrist." Neal carefully leaned to his other side and held his injured arm against his body as he levered himself up to his feet. "I'm sorry, I've ruined our evening."

"We can get take-out for dinner and eat it at your place after we get done at the ER. Don't worry about it." Sara hailed a cab and saw Neal into the back seat before she climbed in herself. "Lennox Hill emergency entrance," she said to the driver before sitting back with one elegant hand on Neal's thigh.

He tried to focus on that, her touch on his leg, instead of the pain that was growing in his wrist. He'd had worse injuries, but a broken bone was never fun. Neal closed his eyes, and it was unexpectedly soon when Sara squeezed his leg and said, "We're here."

Neal started to awkwardly reach for his wallet with his good hand when Sara stopped him.

"It's paid. Come on, Caffrey, let's go."

"Yes, ma'am." Neal gave her a smile then followed her out of the cab and into the emergency room. He was expecting to have to wait for hours, but he had apparently chosen a convenient time to wipe out on the icy street. After a short wait, they were seen back to the treatment area, and Sara took the small seat next to the bed while Neal stretched out on the bed and gave the intern his medical history.

Soon enough, Neal got some pain relief, just enough to take the edge off the growing ache in his wrist, and the doctor said that they'd take him back for an x-ray as soon as possible. "I'm so sorry. I can't believe I let this happen."

Sara shook her head. "Even you can be fallible, Neal."

"I'm aware of that. I just usually manage to make that somewhat less literal." Neal watched as Sara frowned and reached around herself to press a hand to her back. "Hey, are you sure I didn't hurt you out there? Maybe you should get checked out, too."

"Stop it. I'm fine." Sara gave him a stern look, but Neal thought he saw a touch of uneasiness hiding behind that.

"You're sure."

"I--" Sara winced and reached for her back again. "Maybe--maybe you're right."

Neal felt his heart start to speed up. If Sara was willing to admit she might be hurt, it had to be bad. "We should have called an ambulance in the first place. You could have a serious back injury or something." Neal saw the bit of fear on Sara's face and opened his mouth to call for the doctor, but Sara stood and put her hand on his mouth.

"Wait. It's nothing like that, just a little cramp. It's just that I--" Sara looked away, and Neal didn't know what to think. She bent down then and whispered in Neal's ear, "I'm pregnant," and Neal felt as if he'd just landed on the sidewalk all over again because he couldn't breathe, couldn't move.

"Sara," he whispered finally, unable to come up with any other words. "Sara."

"That's my name, Caffrey." She gave him a watery smirk, and Neal pulled her close with his good hand and kissed her until they were both breathless. She stood up straight then, looking uneasy as she pressed a hand to her back again.

Neal wasn't going to be shut up this time. He got off the bed and pushed through the curtain to find the intern from earlier walking by. "Excuse me, we need help in here."

"We'll get you into x-ray soon, Mr. Caffrey. Please just--"

"No! My girlfriend is pregnant, and I think there's something wrong with her."

With dizzying speed, Neal was corralled back to his bed, and Sara was admitted and situated in the bed next to Neal's with the curtain open between them. He listened as she told the doctor that she was just over two months along, and he watched as a different doctor examined her. They did an ultrasound, Sara's gown and blanket pushed up to reveal her still-flat stomach, and when he heard Sara gasp Neal got back out of his bed and hurried around to hers.

"What's going on?"

The doctor looked at Neal then back down at Sara. "Would you like me to show him as well?"

Sara nodded. "He's the father," she said, and Neal's head spun at hearing that even though he'd already known there was nobody else. "Please." Sara reached for Neal's hand, and he took it, wishing he had both hands at his disposal.

The doctor turned the display then placed the wand over Sara's stomach again, and what Neal saw on the screen was small and fuzzy, but clearly a fetus. A fetus that _moved_. "Oh my God. Is that normal? Is everything okay?"

"As far as I can see right now, everything's fine. The fetal heart rate is good." The doctor put away the ultrasound wand but left the image up on the screen as she pushed Sara's gown back down. "Would you sit forward a little bit for me?"

Sara complied and the doctor put a hand on her back and felt around for a moment then nodded. "What?" Sara asked.

"I think you just have a slight muscle strain in your back. I'll have a doctor from orthopedics come and take a look at you, but I suspect that with some ice and maybe some Tylenol you should be fine."

Sara laughed, sounding as close to breaking down as Neal had heard her. "Ice is what got us in this situation to start with."

The doctor talked to Sara about staying for observation for a little while and about seeing her regular OB-Gyn, but Neal couldn't stop staring at the screen. They were going to have a _baby_. He never would have chosen to become a father while he was still officially serving out his sentence, and the prospect of being a father at all was overwhelming, but he couldn't help smiling at that blob on the screen.

"Neal?" Sara's voice jolted Neal out of his daydreaming, and he looked over to see that the doctor had left. "Are you okay with this?"

"Of course. You know that I meant what I said at the Empire State Building that day. I love you."

Sara smiled, then looked irritated with herself as she brushed tears out of her eyes. "I love you too. I was going to tell you, I promise. I just wanted to wait for the right time."

"I understand. But are _you_ okay with this? With having a baby?"

"Neal, if I didn't want to have this baby with you then I wouldn't be, and you wouldn't know about it. I didn't plan on being pregnant right now, but as soon as I found out it felt like the right thing."

Neal put his good arm around Sara and pulled her close. She hugged him back until he hissed at the pressure on his wrist. "Ow." Neal's head spun as the pain and the drugs and the worry and surprise and joy of the last half hour overwhelmed him, and he leaned his hip against the side of Sara's bed.

"Whoa, hey, sit up here with me if you won't go back to your own bed." Sara scooted over, and Neal sighed with relief as he leaned against the raised head of her bed and put his feet up. "Better?"

"The best," Neal said as he leaned his head against Sara's.

"Just relax. Soon enough they'll get a cast on your arm and eventually we can both go home."

"Home sounds good." Neal knew that he had a lot of things to worry about--whether Sara would marry him, where they would live, whether the baby would be okay, what work he could find to help support them once he was no longer a CI--but for the moment he let himself daydream about the small things. He imagined what Peter's face would look like when Neal told him the news, and he imagined what Sara would look like as she grew larger, round where she'd always been angular.

The one thing he knew for sure was that he'd never leave his child the way his father had left him, and everything else he could figure out along the way.

This entry is also posted at at <http://embroiderama.dreamwidth.org/574594.html> where there are  comments. Please comment wherever you prefer.

**Author's Note:**

> This story has a sequel: [Head Over Heels](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1569128).


End file.
